Printing and imaging devices, for example computer printers, are known, and include dot-matrix printers, piezo-electric ink jet printers, laser printers, thermal ink jet printers, handheld ink jet printers, and other ink jet printing devices. Certain computer printers are configured to use tank-style printheads having a combination of monochromatic and multi-colored ink tanks. For example, a printhead may include one monochromatic ink tank and one multi-colored ink tank that includes yellow, cyan, and magenta ink wells in a single ink tank (CMY). In another example, printheads may be configured to have individual ink tanks for each ink color—such as a monochromatic ink tank, a yellow ink tank, a cyan ink tank, and a magenta ink tank. Other example printheads are configured to include a single ink tank having monochromatic, yellow, cyan, and magenta (CMYK) wells in the single tank. The various ink tank configurations provide options for consumers whose ink and printing usage varies.
Ink tanks may be configured to include a memory tag or memory device to store information for the operation of the printhead, the individual ink tank, and the printer. In some configurations, when a memory reader is to be aligned with or be in close proximity to the memory of, for example a configuration including an radio frequency identification (RFID) memory tag or a standard read or read/write memory providing temporary electrical connection with a memory reader, the printhead carriage moves to align an ink tank memory tag with a tank memory tag reader. Upon alignment, the tank memory tag reader performs the memory operation, for example a read or a write to the memory tag. The printhead carriage indexes along its path so as to align the next ink tank memory tag, for example on the next ink tank, with the memory tag reader and performs the next memory operation. This printhead carriage indexing is typically performed for each ink tank, and in printhead configurations having multiple, interchangeable ink tanks, for each possible ink tank that could be installed.
Each read and/or write cycle may take as much as about 500 milliseconds to complete. Accordingly, if an indexing and read and/or write step is performed for each ink tank, and the printhead has four tanks (e.g., CMYK), then it may take as much as about 2 seconds or more to complete a complete memory operation. Currently, even when the printhead contains fewer than the default four ink tanks (e.g, one monochromatic ink tank and one tri-color ink tank (CMY)), the printhead carriage indexes four times exactly as if there were four ink tanks. Similarly, ink tank configurations having memory tags that are in constant electrical connection and do not require physical alignment with a memory tag reader may still be subject to excess read and/or write operations when the printer controller executes read and/or write steps for each possible ink tank, even if there are fewer than the default ink tanks installed.
For example, a printer installed with a printhead having two ink tanks—one monochromatic and one tri-colored (CMY)—would initially align the printhead carriage so that the monochromatic ink tank memory tag is aligned with the memory tag reader to perform the read and/or write step. Next, the printhead carriage will index to the location where a yellow ink tank would be placed, and the memory tag for the second tri-color tank would be located so as to be in the same position, allowing the next read and/or write step for the tri-color ink tank to be performed. However, because the printer is unaware that there are no other ink tanks, the printhead carriage will be advanced to the location of the cyan ink tank and then to the location of the magenta ink tank. The printers are configured in this manner so as to have a standard memory operation even when the printheads are configured for interchangeable ink tanks.
The current printhead and memory operation configuration may increase the page-per-minute printing speed for configurations actually requiring fewer read and/or write steps than that for the standard configuration (e.g., four). For example, if it takes about 500 milliseconds to perform a read and/or write step per memory tag, a printhead having only two memory tags would still take as long as about 2 seconds, even though only two read and/or write steps need to be performed because the carriage and the memory tag reader perform the same steps to read from each of the four default locations, notwithstanding the configuration of the printhead in use.
The current configuration for reading ink tank memory tags in each of the default location, regardless of the ink tank configuration negatively impacts the potential printing speed due to extraneous read and/or write steps being performed. There remains an unsatisfied need in the industry for utilizing ink tank memory tags to indicate the configuration of the ink tanks, so as to inform the printer firmware and to perform more efficient memory operations, thus improving print speeds.
Accordingly, there exists a need for methods and systems using printhead tank memory to determine printhead tank configuration.